30 Things America Is
by Eilwynn
Summary: Just some scattered thoughts on what lies beneath a country - some more self evident than others.
1. Chapter 1

It was supposed to be about America and Japan, but ended up being just about America. Here's thirty things America is, with a big emphasis on real life/politics.

* * *

1. America was Japan's enemy before he was his friend. Back before World War II, he had underestimated Japan.

He never did that again.

2. America's anger is reactionary and all-encompassing. Anger is his single biggest motivator in war. Everything else the rest of the world thinks are his reasons for war - whether or not they even exist - come secondary to anger. However, it is anger, and desperation, that push him to great heights, too.

3. Desperation was something America had never really experienced before the Great Depression. He learned that when you climb to great heights, your falls tend to be just as huge, and his people despaired that they would ever climb again. Yet they were already trying their hardest to get back on their feet when that final push to enter World War II came.

It was anger again.

4. America is not used to thinking of other countries as friends, or even used to thinking of them very much at all. He comes from a group of people who started their country because they didn't like it anywhere else, who felt oppressed and deprived of freedoms or who wanted to start over, and that is still intrinsic within him. America was very isolationist before the World Wars, and that is still intrinsic too. America did not even want to join the League of Nations because he thought it would get him involved with other countries, and that was something he had no interest in.

But when The Blitz began on England, he finally had to do something to help... even though he himself was still troubled and he half-expected what was to come afterward.

There are some things a person couldn't handle seeing destroyed, and for America, no matter their differences, England is one of them.

5. America has a world PR problem. He is vaguely aware of this, but doesn't particularly care, because for the most part he doesn't look very much to what other countries think of him. He is simply himself.

When he bothers to think of it, he wonders if that might be why he has a world PR problem, actually.

6. A large part of America still wishes he could be isolationist again. He is not a country built to be inclined to think about other countries, and thinking of how his actions will reverberate throughout the world has never come naturally to him. He has a deep inner uncertainty about how to be a world Superpower, and it often leads to choices that seem uneven, depending on the situation - because he's never quite gotten used to the idea of what he is.

A large portion of America wants to be isolationist again. But the rest of him knows he's become too caught up in the rest of the world, and that's no longer possible.

7. America did not necessarily mean to become extremely rich - though he's not complaining. He simply saw adaptation as a useful skill and kept working toward better things, and it ended up working out that way. Now many other countries see America as arrogant because he spends so much. They don't understand that America's retained so much money, what he spends he sees as normal. That's why he gives a lot away to other, poorer countries sometimes, because he can afford to even when times are bad.

It's also why he keeps spreading his influence farther and farther out. If the other country lets you spread and there's a market in that country, he doesn't always understand why you'd have any reason not to.

8. America has an extremely huge, complex economic system. There are so many different facets to his economy, and so many fallback systems set in place, that ironically it takes him a long time to recover from an economic downturn, because it's like the Titanic. It's so big that every part starts bogging every other part down. And usually when the recovery happens, the biggest factor is the tenacity of the people themselves.

His private sector is sometimes greedy, but it is also a huge source of economic strength.

9. America has huge social problems because usually he has very few problems concerning the state of his people. So when the social problems actually do come, it's not that he doesn't care - he just doesn't know what the hell to do about them.

10. America is very aware that other people don't like him, more so than anyone might think. He is defensive and paranoid sometimes, especially with his current level of power, and it sometimes makes him come off as touchy. Deep down, it's because he's built himself up so high he's afraid of falling, afraid of being betrayed. Splashed across many US History classrooms is the saying, "Can the US avoid the fate of Ancient Rome?"

That is an American's first introduction to US History.

11. America does not mean that other countries are bad when he touts how great he is. He simply loves himself, and he does it like he does everything: to excess and enthusiastically. There is a vital difference.

12. America may posture a lot, to cover up insecurities, but usually he doesn't actually mean anything threatening by it. America's very, witheringly blunt: if you have any danger of getting threats from him, he normally just tells you. You know exactly where you stand with him, and sometimes that's not even threatening, he's just giving you a status report.

This is often why there's a stereotype of America as being rude. Other countries usually aren't quite sure what to do with that.

13. America prides himself on being open and friendly. Generally the easiest way to strike up a friendly conversation with America is to come up and ask him for directions. He'll generally be able to carry on a conversation from that for at least ten minutes, and then he'll ask you out to coffee later, just, you know, on a whim.

14. America is hard to define because he is so vast and varied. No matter what you think, there is a large group of people in America that quite openly thinks the same way. America is often very inwardly conflicted, but this is partly because he just likes arguing. Loudly.

15. For America, respect generally outweighs resentment in the end. And when America respects you, he generally does it by paying attention to you.

This is what happened with Japan. Past all the fear, hatred, and paranoia, there was the respect that won out in the end. That was the first thing that changed. America realized Japan was inherently three things: quiet, kind, and tough.

The realization surprised him, but not in a bad way.

16. This is what will probably happen with China. America resents China because he is extremely individualistic (not because everyone else in the West does, because really, who cares about that?) and China's policies often are not. He looks askance at China because they are inherently different in many ways.

He hates China out of paranoia. Because sometimes, just sometimes, China reminds America an awful lot of himself, in a way no one else really has.

But he also pays enough attention to China that he respects him. And with China's desire to grow in policies and make friends, it is probably respect that will win out in the end.

17. America has a lot of internal racial conflict, in part simply because he has such huge populations of races all squished together in one place. In such a vast and varied internal landscape, human beings are such that racial conflict is often inevitable. This is why the United States has race problems. It's also usually why America to a person is so friendly and accepting toward everyone he meets, because when you're so aware that racism exists, you never want to be that person.

18. America's individualism is also part of what attracts him to Japan, because he can understand that. Japan is very different, and has many strange new subinterests that generally seem pretty weird to everyone else. America is no different, but he also finds these strange interests entertaining and amusing, too - if anyone can appreciate individualism and absurdity, it's America.

Sometimes he even gets into the newest strange interest along with Japan. And then never, ever tells anyone else. Ever.

19. America does not as often see England as The Place To Visit, but this is actually a compliment. Typically, when America thinks of those places, he thinks of places he hasn't been to and explored yet.

When he thinks of going to England, he just thinks of going to a second home.

20. America is very moody. He changes with the time, the season, and everything else. He is also very hurried, which doesn't always help. He has a good sense of humor, though. When your life is like that, you have to be able to laugh at it once in a while.

21. America does not have some secret money-making scam on weight loss items. He just really, really likes unhealthy, delicious food. If it tastes bland, you just haven't put enough grease on it.

Sometimes, it's not all that complicated.

22. America generally never looks back to the past and wonders "What if?" It makes him seem compassionless to some, but mostly he just doesn't see the point.

One of the greatest shows of affection America has ever given to Japan is that World War II is one of the only times in his history where he constantly looks back and wonders "What if?"

23. America has recently been getting more interested in traveling to other countries and seeing them. It took him a little while, because it took him a long time to see from traveling beyond his own borders. They're quite large, you know.

He doesn't usually try to fit in with the country he's going to visit, though - it goes back to that individualism "not caring about what anyone else thinks" sort of thing. He's just himself. Sometimes the stares he gets amuse him, too, which... doesn't help.

24. No one else is allowed to criticize America because America is (usually) extremely critical of himself. Internally, he dissects and dissects everything, and thinks about it and thinks about it.

He just never usually bothers to broadcast this to anyone else. It goes back to that whole "doesn't think about what others see too much" sort of thing.

25. Yet America knows many dislike him, and it makes him worry about the friends he does have. Whenever England or Japan, or even Australia, show any possible sign of rejection or distance, he's angry with himself for being so dumb and hurt and wonders if this is it - if it's over, and they're going to dislike him like everyone else. He's constantly checking in the mirror to see if things have changed. He doesn't like to show or admit it, though.

26. America actually does have a great fondness for Australia. Not even really for any particular reason - Australia's just a lot of fun to be around. America can appreciate the easiness to that.

27. American life is not actually like it is in the movies, a lot the time. The idea that everyone thinks it is amuses him greatly, though, so he doesn't often say too much about it.

28. On that note, the quickest thing you can do to be hated by America is ruin his entertainment experience while he's at a show. He has been known to show some very extreme reactions to this. Just trust me - it's not a good idea.

29. America generally does try to be a loving, open, free country for everyone else. He doesn't always succeed, sometimes - but not always - because this can be taken advantage of by others. Not on purpose, however.

Many genuinely think America could do anything if he really wanted to. This honors and also frightens him - because he knows his own fragility. (Which goes back to posturing again.)

30. America is more complicated than he seems, yet he's very plainly spoken. Flowery poetry has never really been his thing. He is what he is, at once self-aware and unaware, and generally he just acts on that. He bends for no one. And somewhere deep down, he sometimes wonders if this is intrinsic, too.


	2. 10 More

1. America loves compliments. They make him all glowy and proud of himself, and he ends up repeating them to himself for weeks whenever he feels down.

2. America likes tourists, as long as they don't gawk about absolutely everything about him and disrupt the normal flow of his life. Then he finds them more irritating than he usually lets on.

3. America is not very good with foreign languages because he's one of the only countries who has never had to learn a second.

4. America has a thing about being touched by someone he doesn't know very well. He's very huggy once you're friends with him, but before that he can get pretty weirded out when you don't give him his little bubble of space.

5. For someone who spends so much money, America is paradoxically sensitive and embarrassed about being in debt. It makes him feel out of control of his life.

6. America is very willing to change with the cultural times. His entire existence is one of continuous and perpetual change, of tearing things down and rebuilding them into something better without much thought or recourse to sentimentality. That's why, when he comes upon something he _does_ see as important to preserve, he can get extremely attached to and defensive of it.

7. America smiles all the time, but he notices that (in his mind) Japan never really seems to smile at all. When he is, he's usually just being polite, and America can tell the difference. (He is very well taught in the nuances of smiling.) That's why, whenever he does make Japan really, truly delighted about something, enough to make a big smile grow over Japan's face, it usually makes all of America's higher brain power die and he suddenly feels ridiculously pleased with himself.

8. England is usually very stiff (especially in America's mind), which is why America loves it when he shows his sense of humor. It's nice to see him relax a little bit and just have fun.

Also, he gets completely random and spazzy whenever it shows up, which America can also appreciate from a humorous perspective.

9. For America, copying you really is the highest form of flattery. Usually he doesn't bother to copy anyone else.

10. When America gets into something, he_ really_ gets into something. He shows all of his enthusiasm and all of his creativity, and he participates in it and collects it like crazy. Oddly, however, he is usually very insistent on how much he'll produce in extras from a certain fandom he's created that even his citizens like.


End file.
